After opening the day deep in the red, Indian share markets recovered some losses as the session progressed and ended marginally lower.

Worries that the US central bank will keep raising interest rates dented investor sentiment.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 168 points (down 0.3%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed down by 31 points (down 0.2%).

Shree Cements, UltraTech Cements, and Adani Ports were among the top gainers today.

Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, and IndusInd Bank, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 17,636, lower by 40 points, at the time of writing.

The broader markets ended on a positive note. The BSE Mid Cap index was up by 0.5% while the BSE Small Cap index ended higher by 0.7%.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the telecom sector, and the healthcare sector witnessing most of the buying.

On the other hand, stocks in the auto sector, power sector, and banking sector witnessed selling pressure.

Even the best bank stocks in India stayed volatile today to end on a negative note.

Shares of Blue Dart Express, Adani Enterprises, and Timken India hit their 52-week high today.

Outside the home ground, Asian share markets ended on a mixed note.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei ends down by 0.7%, while the Hang Seng dived by 0.8%. The Shanghai Composite ended higher by 0.1%.

US stock futures are trading on a positive note with Dow Jones futures trading up by 0.1%.

The rupee is trading at 79.9 against the US$.

Gold prices are currently trading higher by 0.1% at Rs 50,281 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading higher by 0.8% at Rs 53,146 per kg.

Note that gold prices have fallen and have taken quite a knock in recent weeks. Silver prices too have fallen a lot in recent days.

The question on everyone's mind now is when will gold and silver prices recover.

Once the Fed signals an end to the rate hikes (or hints at it) and when investors are confident the US economy will emerge from the recession, that's when we see gold and silver prices recovering.

In news from the defense sector, Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) was among the top buzzing stocks today.

The share price of Hindustan Aeronautic jumped over 2% intraday today after announcing, that it assembled gas turbines for INS Vikrant.

These gas turbines were assembled and tested at HAL's dedicated facility in Bangalore.

Commenting on this, Hindustan Aeronautic in an exchange filing said,

HAL is proud to be associated with India's first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier, IAC-1 Vikrant, which was commissioned recently as INS Vikrant by the Prime Minister at Kochi
HAL carried out critical activities towards readiness of IAC for basin trials. HAL's team was actively involved in the integration of the power plant to the IAC and was onboard IAC for all sea trials in the absence of foreign OEM representatives contributing substantially to the Make-in-India concept.

Earlier this week, HAL signed a formal contract for Rs 8.6 bn with NewSpace India for the realization of five PSLV-XL Launch Vehicles.

Apart from this, it has benefited from the Indian government's efforts to increase defense indigenization. In the year so far, the stock has gained over 95%.

HAL is among the top defense stocks in India having a monopoly in certain segments.

Speaking of the defense sector, note that the government's  Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan has emphasized the need for self-reliance in security space.

Given the increasing focus on self-reliance, the Ministry of Defense (MoD), has set a target of doubling defense production to US$ 25 bn by 2025. To boost this the Indian government is likely to spend a massive US$130 bn over the next 7-8 years on the modernization of the armed forces.

We believe the defense sector could produce the next set of multibagger stocks over the long run.

Moving on to news from the mining sector, Coal India shares were in focus today.

Coal India's share rose 2.5% on the back of record-high production in five months.

Coal India announced that at a historical high, the company's production increased by 44.6 million tons (MTs) in just 5 months and 4 days.

The company's production touched 259.6 MTs as of 4 September 2022 compared with 215 MTs same date last year.

The record milestone was achieved when its's progressive production touched 259.6 MTs on 4 September'22 of the current fiscal, compared to 215 MTs same date last year.

Commenting on this, Coal India in exchange filing said,

Pursuing 700 MT production target in FY'23 CIL began the chase with an asking growth rate of 12.4% which, on the back of a strong output performance, slid down to 8% as of now. All the subsidiary companies of CIL have posted growth over last year.

The company usually produces a higher volume of coal during the second half of the financial year than in the first half. Of the 700 MT target of FY23, the production split is around 44% for the H1 and 56% for the H2.

Coal India is an Indian government-owned coal mining and refining corporation. It's the largest coal-producing company in the world and contributes around 82% to the total coal production in India.

Coal India is a monopoly stock offering over 7% in dividend yield.

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